Photo: Ebyabe · CC BY 2.5Archer’s household incomes are lower than in 95% of U.S. towns
Hardly any stay in Archer for work; outside it, Gainesville is the main destination (48%, 14 miles). 38.1% of residents live below the poverty line (Florida 12.6%). The two grades for Archer are D for jobs and income and B for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Archer and work: the main findings
Why Archer gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Archer is better than 5% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Archer’s grade up (ahead of 35% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (7.0%) is left out: Archer’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Archer could be anywhere from D− to C.
The places Archer commutes to
Where Archer clocks in
48% of workers
4% of workers
3% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
A workday in Archer: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 474 residents head out to work, 3 work right here, and 247 people come in from elsewhere.
About 930 people are in Archer on a workday afternoon, 20% fewer than live here.
0.52 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Goods, not services: 46% of the jobs in Archer
250 jobs are based in Archer.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Archer, 2013 → 2023: 155 → 250. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Archer’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 28 minutes in Archer
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Archer workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 333 commuters (the 14% who work from home are left out). Across Florida: 83% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Near or far: the trip to work from Archer
About 27% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Driving is how Archer gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Archer is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.6% across Florida, on an EPA index of 6.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 388 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 20.5% of Archer households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Archer’s commuters take a bus or train.
Archer next to U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600: 3,853rd of 4,312 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 38 | Fisher Island FL | 1,026 | $250K | 3.8% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 92 | Golden Beach FL | 1,029 | $236K | 7.1% | 2.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 124 | Belleair Beach FL | 1,581 | $164K | 5.9% | 3.6% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,851 | Limestone ME | 1,487 | $50K | 16.4% | 6.8% | 23% | D |
| 3,852 | Elba Township MI | 1,275 | $52K | 17.0% | 4.7% | 3% | D |
| 3,853 | Archer FL | 1,159 | $41K | 38.1% | 7.0% | 1% | D |
| 3,854 | Calhoun City MS | 1,459 | $40K | 15.7% | 6.2% | 9% | D |
| 3,855 | Wheeler NY | 1,150 | $60K | 35.0% | 3.0% | 1% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Archer, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
Archer and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Newberry (2%).
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Archer’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Archer: questions
What is the median household income in Archer?
$41,058 (±$21,553) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Archer?
38.1%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Archer?
28 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 14% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Archer work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Gainesville (48%, 14 mi), Jacksonville (4%, 75 mi), Alachua (3%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Archer walkable?
Archer is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.6 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Archer without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 20% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Archer, from the people who make the trip.
More of Archer
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.